Gujarat Send Half of Country’s Total Trains for Migrant Labors

May 13, 2020, Gandhinagar - Taking up the transportation of migrant workers on a mission mode, the Gujarat government has so far facilitated the movement of 3.15 lakh workers to their home states through Special Shramik Trains.

“We have run 262 Shramik Special trains till 12th May from Gujarat which was 41% Shramik Special trains out of total train ran by Railway. These trains have taken more than 3.15 lakh workers to their home states of Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, etc.,” said Vipul Mittra, ACS, Labour and Employment department, who is also the state’s nodal officer for transportation of migrant workers, students, pilgrims, tourists, and other stranded people to their home states through special trains.

Statistics shared by the Labour and Employment department show that more than 2 lakh workers have been transported in special trains in the last five days alone. More than 50,000 workers travelled in the special trains on May 9 and 10 each, over 32,300 on May 11, more than 45,200 on May 12, and over 20,000 till afternoon on May 13.

“There are multiple challenges, such as dealing with migrants who might be homesick to return home, getting clearance of the host state and coordinating with Railways to arrange for trains. our teams and collectors' team are doing this day in and day out, and have managed to smoothly transport such a large number of workers,” Mittra said.

Giving details of the steps involved in the movement of workers, Mittra said that the workers who register for travel are listed destination-wise, before being picked up from their homes or colonies and transported to railway stations in sanitized buses. The workers are also screened and given food- water bottles before boarding the trains. The special trains and the station are sanitised by the railways and then the migrant passengers are boarded.

Of the 276 trains that have been run till afternoon on May 13, maximum 91 have been from Surat, 69 from Ahmedabad, 21 from Vadodara, and 17 from Rajkot. Trains have also been run from Bharuch, Kutch, Palanpur, Morbi and other places.

Uttar Pradesh was the destination of 184 of the special trains, 32 to Bihar, 29 to Odisha, 19 to MP, eight to Jharkhand, and two each to Uttarkhand.